The pup is a little handful (as puppies can be), but I'm satisfied with what I see because it is an early indicator to me that she may have the drive and the energy level I am looking for as she matures. I've attached some photos of her below.
So far she's walking great on a leash! When I picked her up at the cargo facility, I brought her crate out to my SUV and set it in the trunk. Then I took her down and out of it, put her on a leash, and took her over to a grassy area to try and get her to relieve herself. Of course she fought the leash a bit but gentle guidance and "smooching" noises helped her quickly overcome its foreign feeling. She didn't have to go, so instead we spent a few minutes beginning our bonding...just walking around a bit and stretching our legs. Then we loaded back up and came home.
The next morning, we went out on a 20-30 minute walk through the neighborhood. She perked up at things she was unsure of but showed a great amount of confidence, which concurs with the breeder's description of her being an "outgoing" pup. She barked a little at a girl in a yellow dress but I kept us moving forward so that she didn't have time to dwell on it. She also showed some interest as a jogger (which to herding dogs, would be a sheep on two legs) so we turned around and followed the jogger a short ways until she saw that there wasn't much that was exciting about the jogger besides the fact that she was going faster than us. The walk went very well and she took a nice nap when we got back.
The rest of the day consisted of short periods of time in the crate and a brief visit from a friend who was going out of town. She was very friendly with my friend, which is another characteristic the breeder described her as having, but for the time being I had my friend ignore her save towards the end of her visit when she was allowed to give her a little pat.
We took another walk this morning...about 30-40 minutes this time, I'd say. I have to get my Vet's opinion on exercise. I don't want to over-exercise her, although she is a fairly high energy puppy and I'd like to be able to take her out for at least 30 minutes one time a day. The second time I take her out, I could cut down to 10 or 20 minutes if need be. I just don't want to put too much stress on her joints. The topic of exercise in puppies seems to be somewhat controversial. I have my opinion which is based mostly upon the fact that different puppies have different exercise needs and so the 5-minute rule I've read about (5 minutes for every month of age the puppy is) would be absolutely ludicrous (i.e. for my Jack Russell - as a puppy, 15 minutes of exercise per day at 4 months of age would have practically been abuse! He had way too much energy to not get more physical exercise than that) but for other puppies, that would be more than enough. We'll see what the Vet says.
Her first appointment is Wednesday afternoon with one of the various vets here in town. He was recommended to me by a Vet I know back at home, as well as by a friend of mine who worked there and a coworker in the research lab I work in. I'm looking forward to it!
Today we began working on an intentional sit for food, to go in/out of doors, and for toys. She doesn't know what the command means just yet but she's already beginning to pick up on when I want her to pause for things and so if I reach to touch her just under her chin, she usually plops her bottom down into the sitting position. At which point I lavish her with praise ("good girl! good sit!") and reward her with whatever she was waiting for, be it her meal, going into the house, or playing with her toys.
So now, after all of my rambling, here are the much awaited pictures:
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